Quarantine
by Stevenspielbergwriter3
Summary: "You don't understand, Alvin. Things have changed. Everywhere you go, you're being watched. If you walk down the street, they see every step you take. If you take a dump, they know about it. That's why we need to stick together and stay alert. Because if they catch us off guard, you can be sure they'll take advantage."
1. Prologue

**Hello fanfic readers! This is a concept I've wrestled around with for a while. Please read and let me know what you think in a review! Thank you!**

**BTW this is just a prologue and backstory. If I decide to continue the story, it will focus much more closely on the munks/ettes.**

**One more thing: I'm trying something out where I give you guys the link to a youtube video containing music (usually a chipmunks song) and you listen to it as you read. If it ends before you get to the next song mark, just restart it or do nothing. **

Prologue:

www. youtube watch?v=AL6Na4v8H_o (remove the spaces)

There was once a day when the chipmunks and chipettes could walk down the street without that feeling; that feeling someone would get if they were being watched. No, not just watched. Scrutinized. Examined so closely that all of a sudden, everything they would do they would do knowing millions were watching with curious eyes.

Even this wouldn't have been the end of the world, had they actually had the freedom to still do whatever they wanted, like they had had before the war. Before the Quarantine.

By the end of the year 2017, the world had been experiencing a series of what were called "Temporary International Peace Disturbances" for a few years. How many, no one cared enough to ask. They were only temporary, after all.

What the rest of the United States did not know but what the chipmunks knew and what the U.S. government most certainly knew was that there was a little more to these "disturbances" than what the media was spelling out. In truth, the US was in the middle of a full scale war with China and Russia's new "People's Government".

It started with a few naval skirmishes deep into the Pacific. But before anyone knew it, the front line had dragged all the way to the west coast. Canada surrendered the next day, being promised peace for a temporary occupation in order to rid the nation of weapons powerful enough to challenge the new "Global Freedom Fighter's Alliance" (or GFFA). Unfortunately, instead of departing after the promised month, the Chinese and Russian forces decided to use the Canadian land as a base for invasion of the United States. American resistance seemed all but futile as slowly but surely GFFA armies progressed southward from Canada into the US and crawling deeper and deeper.

All the meanwhile, the United states government was able to maintain that all of the territory losses were simply part of the negotiations with the GFFA in order to restore permanent peace. The chipmunks and chipettes, sadly, helped the US government tremendously by distracting the people with their much beloved music and being paid bundles. And all the meanwhile millions who had lost their homes were desperately being evacuated to more Southern areas as GFFA forces trailed behind them.

But eventually, there came a point where there was no more room to evacuate. With the later addition of Mexico to the GFFA, US citizens were unable to go any farther South than Texas. Those caught trying to leave America were annihilated on the spot. When D.C. fell, that was the end of it. The United States of America was now under GFFA control. The Chipmunks and Chipettes, having their singing talents deemed by the new government as useful, were lucky enough to be forced to perform for audiences in China and Russia while being payed with the standard bread and water provided to all liberated people of all backgrounds.

Eventually, the casual propaganda began to wear out people from all GFFA-controlled territories, and though nothing was ever officially reported in the GFFA media, rumors began to circle around about a few riots. Regardless of whether or not the rumors had been true, civil unrest was very evident just about anywhere one went. Pressure was on the government to do something, What they decided upon doing was frankly more than a little bizarre.

On December 25th 2018, the day after the President of the former US mysteriously "committed suicide", it was announced that the GFFA Broadcasting Service would begin running a new type of reality television show. This show would feature over five thousand of the "best that the Americans could offer" to live quarantined on Manhattan island, forced to create and live under a society completely of their own choice and almost totally independent from the GFFA. The only aid they would receive would be weekly food and medical supplies being dropped a few miles off shore. Hundreds of cameras were to be strategically placed around the area and remotely operated. Any attempt to escape or to disable a camera would result in immediate annihilation.

Two hours after this was announced, the chipmunks and chipettes, along with Dave, were found waiting in a long line for medical treatment on Eleanor's leg and cornered by a couple dozen soldiers. Dave was forced to say his goodbyes to his children within five minutes as the six were torn forcefully away from his to be escorted to a hotel a mile from Manhattan. People awkwardly looked the other way as Dave pounded his fist on the cracked concrete sidewalk and dug his face into the ground, sobbing loudly, screaming for his kids. But they were long gone. And he would probably never see them again.

**Well, there you go. I have some nice ideas as to what will go down in Manhattan, but I want to know what you people think too! So please don't waste time! Give me a review and I will get you the next chapter ASAP!**


	2. Day 1

**I am BACK with chapter two! Thank you for getting through that kind of boring prologue in the first chapter, this is where it starts to get interesting. I will finally start focusing on the 'munks/'ettes more.**

**Also as for the quick exchange of words over some supposed plot holes regarding the prologue chapter, I cleared some things up with Mon Cri and I appreciate the fact that these confusions were brought up. I hope in the future if anyone has any more confusions that they bring it up. My only goal is to have you enjoy my story as much as possible. **

**No songs in this chapter, sorry.**

Quarantine Day 1

_Alvin's POV_

My eyes snapped open. The cheap fan dangling from a single wire on the ceiling creaked and groaned as it spun at a pathetically slow pace.

The cold air in the room made me shiver and I promptly pulled the single blanket back over my body, rolling to my side as I did. Once I had made myself comfortable once again, I noticed Brittany on the bed next to mine, lying on her side as I was, staring at me intensely. She was so still that I sat up to make sure she wasn't dead. To my relief her eyes followed my face upwards and continued to stare at me without making a sound.

I frowned at her. "Britt," I whispered at her, trying not to wake the others around us, "are you ok?"

Now as she tried to stare back I could see tears well up in her eyes. And after a few seconds she broke into loud, out of control sobbing. She dug her face into the pillow to quiet herself down and wipe the tears away but it didn't stop.

I sighed, pulled the covers off of myself and slid off my bed onto the ice cold "hotel" floor. Still only half awake, I dragged my feet like a zombie over to where Brittany's chipmunk-sized bed was and pulled myself onto it, which we had been told was not allowed. I didn't care.

Brittany continued crying into her pillow as if she hadn't noticed me. I slid under her blanket with her and wrapped my arms around her. She finally picked her head up off the pillow and looked at me. I placed a kiss on her forehead and brushed her bangs behind her ear. "What is it? What's wrong?"

She looked down for a moment as if thinking about it. Finally she looked back up at me and whispered, "what's _not_ wrong?"

I sighed. _Good question_, I thought.

Suddenly the door to the room was unlocked flung open. A tall man stepped into our room and said in a thick Russian accent, "time to grab your things. Big Brother is ready to see you now." He noticed me in Brittany's bed and glared at the two of us. "I should report this," he growled at us. But then his eyes softened up just a touch. "Consider yourselves lucky." And with that he stepped out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

"He doesn't get it," I said to everybody now staring at me and Britt. I looked over at the surveillance camera sitting in a corner of the room. "They already know."

Jeanette nodded. "That's something we'll have to get used to."

"Okay," Simon spoked up, "we should probably get our things together. The GFFA aren't a patient lot."

We were all packed within fifteen minutes, with the exception of Theodore who kindly packed Eleanor's things for her on the account that her leg was still hurt.

Once we wear all ready, we rolled our stuff out of our room and followed a herd of other Americans down to the first floor. There we were greeted surprisingly warmly by a couple of GFFA officials. They asked us our names (as if it wasn't obvious) and gave us each a card which had things like room numbers and GROUP G in bold letters.

One of the officials spoke to us, "Please, go stand in the area which coordinates with your group letter."

Simon, who had warned us earlier to let him do all of the talking, nodded at the official and prompted us to follow him to what used to be the hotel parking lot where thousands of people had been packed into their groups.

We saw a sign in the distance which simply had the letter G in huge bold font, so we assumed that's where we were supposed to go.

Looking around our group was a little bit intimidating. We somehow got the feeling that we were supposed to be in group H next to us, which happened to have mostly pop singers and other celebrities. Instead, we were put into group G, which seemed to mostly consist of politicians. We were probably looking at whatever was left of American leadership before the war.

"Clever," Simon whispered.

"What is it?" I asked.

He leaned closer to me and said, "this is a pretty efficient way to eliminate all of the potential resistance leaders in one blow, isn't it?"

I shrugged.

Suddenly our attention was brought over to a man standing on a platform at the edge of the parking lot. He appeared to be Chinese, though it was hard to tell from the distance we were at.

He grabbed a microphone from the man standing next to him and spoke into it. The surround sound speakers placed around the lot blasted his voice, which absolutely everyone recognized instantly. "Hell-O, comrades! May I have your atten-TION please?"

"Oh my God!" Jeanette couldn't help but yell.

"Is that… Big Brother?" Eleanor cringed in fear.

I can tell you that none of the thousands of people in the parking lot were expecting to actually see "Big Brother" in person. Though he frequently addressed his empire via the GFFA Broadcasting Service to make various announcements, he had never been seen leaving the White House ever since DC had been taken by GFFA forces.

The parking lot Big Brother, originally a Chinese Party Leader, cleared his throat and repeated over the mic, "your atten-TION please?" This time there was a little less patience in his tone of voice.

The lot fell silent immediately. No one wanted to find out what happens when you piss off Big Brother.

He smiled down at us. "Thank you," he said almost sarcastically. "Now, shall we get down to business?"

As he probably expected, there was no answer.

"Very good," he continued. "As I am sure you all know, you have been asked to come down here to be a part of a little psychological experiment. Five thousand of you have been assembled, and you all represent the absolute best of what you Americans used to be forced to call 'The Land of the Free'. Among you are former high-end politicians, successful business men and women, brilliant scientists, hardened military officers…" he trailed off as he glanced quickly at group H to our right "… and many others with valuable skills. Once you are transported and dropped off into the secluded but developed island of Manhattan, you will be effectively trapped there with no realistic routes of escape. Your job is simple: survive as your own society. You will receive little interference from any outside forces. The only help you get will be a weekly supply of food and medications being air dropped into the town square. Any questions so far."

Nobody in the crowd made a move.

"Very well. I also ask you to keep in mind that hundreds of cameras with sound recording capabilities have been strategically placed around the city and the footage recorded is being transmitted to a live audience 24/7 around the Liberated Nation. Don't attempt to disable a camera please, otherwise, I promise you will regret it. Also, do not make any attempts to escape the island." He chuckled into the microphone. "You would regret that even _more_. That is all. Big Brother out."

The chubby man trudged off his little stage and handed the microphone to a man next to him. The man quickly yelled, "everybody please follow your group into your designated trucks! It is time to be transported!"

We followed the crowd to a loading bay where dozens of huge trucks were waiting. We found one that had the letter G painted in every conceivable place, including the tires, so I jumped in, followed by Alvin, followed by Jeanette, followed by Theodore, followed by Brittany.

Eleanor looked up at the high platform, which must have been at least three feet off the ground, which she would have had to reach to get on the truck. "Um… I'm not sure if I can get up there. With my leg, I mean."

"Here," a man behind her said, reaching out his hand, "let me help you with that, Eleanor."

Eleanor turned and looked up at the man talking to her. She recognized him instantly as Brady Moore. He had been governor of California during the war. The chipmunks and chipettes had met him a couple times during some of the many times they were on tour there.

I didn't know much about him, other than that Dave hated him.

Eleanor smiled weakly up at him and stepped on his hand. He picked her up and lifted her into the truck. "Thank you," she said.

He smiled back down at her before hopping into the truck himself. "You're very welcome." He sat down to our right, at the very back of the truck.

A GFFA soldier peered into our truck before slamming the back doors closed and banging on them three times to signal to the driver that he was cleared to leave.

The engine started up. The truck rocked back and forth for a moment before the wheels below us began spinning and we were on the move. Manhattan was just a quick drive away.

Theodore turned back to the former governor of California. "So… h-how have things been with you? You know… since the war?"

He looked gravely down at Theodore. "Scary." He looked up at the lone soldier with a gun in the truck on the other side, then lowered his voice. "Most people in government were secretly executed the second the GFFA got a hold of them."

"I KNEW IT!" Simon exclaimed.

The soldier looked up at Simon and squinted at him. Simon became still. Suddenly, the truck hit what was probably a pot hole and rocked violently. Everyone screamed for fear that they too were being executed, but the truck righted itself and everyone went back to staring at their laps including the soldier.

Mr. Moore leaned back in towards the six of us. "Those of us in this group are probably the last that remain. We were lucky. They saw potential good TV in our charisma, I guess."

I chuckled. _Maybe you just got lucky_.

After yet another small bump in the road, everyone looked out the nearest window to see that we were now over a bridge. One the other side of that bridge: Manhattan.

The soldier stood up and started stepping towards us with a blow horn in his hand. We gulped down our fear. He stopped in front of Mr. Moore and handed him the blow horn before walking back.

"Wait!" Moore cried. "What do I do with this?"

The soldier didn't answer, probably didn't speak English.

Suddenly we were over the bridge. We crossed under a large sign that said on it "WELCOME TO MANHATTAN" in large bold font.

After a few more yards, the truck came to an abrupt stop. The soldier stood up again and jogged to the back of the truck, opening it, jumping out, and turning back to us inside. "OUT!" he commanded.

Everyone obeyed as we all fumbled out of the huge truck and took a look at our surroundings. The city was in poor shape. Windows destroyed everywhere. Power seemed not to be working anywhere. Streets were severely cracked. In some places, entire buildings looked to have been completely flattened. All of Manhattan was in ruins. And it was a sad thing to see.

The now empty trucks wasted no time in speeding off back across the bridge as quickly as they could, leaving five thousand people staring at them. Though no one said it, there was one thing on everyone's mind: should we chase after them? This is our chance to escape!

That question was answered just as soon as the last truck was over the bridge. A giant explosion right down the middle of the bridge rocked the streets and knocked most people off their feet. Not only that, but the middle section of the bridge was completely blown apart. In seconds, the entire bridge was crumbling into the sea below. There went that.

Brady Moore, who was still next to us with that blow horn, cleared his throat and turned to the thousands of people behind him. He put the blow horn to his mouth, and spoke: "okay, people! I'm Brady Moore, former Governor of California! I think the best we can do is live with what we have been given, even if none of us really like it!" The people around him listening murmured restlessly. "We all have been given room numbers on our cards, have we not?"

At that point over half of the crowd raised their hands.

"What?" Moore asked.

"WE DON'T HAVE ROOM NUMBERS!" one of them shouted.

"YEAH!" the rest agreed.

Simon snapped his fingers in realization. "The GFFA are trying to mock our ideology!" he said.

"What ideology?" Theodore asked.

"Umm…" Simon thought for a moment. "Not communism."

Brady Moore stared in horror at the crowd in front of him, getting pissed at him as well as those who had room numbers on their cards. Fists were beginning to fly.

As the situation grew more desperate, Moore finally snapped. "ALRIGHT!" Everyone stopped momentarily. "Now, will those with rooms please raise their hands?"

Those of us with rooms raised our hands, which looked to be about half of the crowd. Not only that, but there was definitely a very clear pattern as to who got rooms and who didn't. It was mostly business men and women and politicians and those of us who apparently were supposed to be more "useful" in holding a society together that were assigned rooms. Apparently everyone else noticed this, too. Because what Moore said next nearly began a riot: "okay, so about half of us. I guess that means we'll be sharing! Everyone who does not have a room, pick someone who does."

The other half of the crowd began booing and cussing. "WE EARNED THESE ROOMS!" some screamed. The entire scene became anarchy.

_Big Brother must be laughing his ass off at this,_ I thought to myself.

Finally another man in a nice suit walked up to where Moor was standing and stole the blow horn. I braced myself for the final blow that would turn this entire thing upside down, but instead, the man spoke to us calmly. "EVERYBODY! Please stop!"

Again, the people patiently listened.

The man continued, "I'm John Gault. U.S. Senator from Texas. First of all, this entire argument is pointless. These are simply rooms specifically assigned to people who Big Brother wants to keep a special eye on. There are still other places where everyone can find shelter for now. Really, you should be thankful you don't have a room. And in the future, we will get more organized and figure out exactly where everybody is. But for now, please just do your best to stay organized and find some place to stay. For those of you with rooms, please begin finding them now."

"SO," one person from the crowd shouted, "WE _WON'T_ BE SHARING ROOMS?"

Gault shook his head. "No."

Half of the crowd cheered. Surprisingly there wasn't much resentment from the other half. We all split up to look for our new homes without much more of a fight.

Moore added one more thing, snatching the horn from Gault. "And remember, Big Brother is watching you!"

With the help of a map we found on the street, it wash't long before we found the building we were staying in. It was just as worn down as the others if not more, but we were very happy to find that we were splitting three rooms. We were split by the typical couples that the world traditionally identified us by.

Before we each went to our rooms, Simon stopped us. "No matter what," he warned us, "I think we should all just stay in our rooms for the rest of the day, no matter what. We'll figure things out tomorrow."

We all agreed.

Mine and Brittany's room was surprisingly nice. It wasn't taken care of or anything, but the windows were all completely in tact and no other damage was very obvious.

Brittany sighed and slumped down on our bed. I frowned at her and did the same right next to her. Without making a sound she wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder.

We were only 18, and I wasn't exactly sure how Dave would feel about this. Did it even still matter? I looked around the room quickly to see if I could spot a camera, but I didn't. Satisfied, I gave Brittany a reassuring kiss on the cheek.

**Phew. That was longer than I wanted, so sorry. I hope you enjoyed it anyway and please stay tuned for the next chapter. Hopefully it'll be shorter ;).**


	3. Day 2 (Part 1)

**So sorry this update took so long. I've been busy with other things. Hopefully, this chapter will be worth the wait.**

**Oh and by the way this chapter definitely earned it's T rating, as there are some scenes that some viewers may find slightly offensive or disturbing. Just a heads up.**

_Simon's POV_

Day 2:

The morning air felt chilly and drafty due mostly to the large hole where a window should have been with a view of the city. Up ten stories, wind flew in relentlessly, and we did our best to ignore it.

Jeanette snuggled deeper into my arms. I awkwardly adjusted them to wrap around her more comfortably.

I wanted to kiss her, tell her good morning. But right then I remembered that there was a very good chance that we were being watched. And not just Big Brother, but maybe even the whole world. It all depended on who they had decided to focus the show on at that second. My face got a little sweaty thinking that billions of people were looking at one person on a screen at that very moment, and it might have been me.

I felt sick, so I pulled myself away from Jeanette and hopped off our human-sized bed. She stirred and awoke as I trudged into the bathroom, scratching my back lazily and yawning.

"Good morning!" she called down to me cheerfully.

I frowned back up at her. "I guess," I muttered, shrugging.

She hopped down from the bed and followed me into the bathroom. I turned to face her. She shuttered from the cold air breezing through. I stared at her in her transparent night gown, with her underwear being visible underneath.

She raised an eye brow at me warningly. "Don't," she said firmly. "We're being watched, remember?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Right."

Suddenly there was a knock on our room's door. But I guess we had forgotten to close it all the way the other night, because it swung open, revealing John Gault standing out in the hall way with a surprised look on his face.

He looked down at us and noticed Jeanette in her underwear. Embarrassed, she covered herself with her hands and kind of hid behind me. Gault's face reddened and he looked away.

He cleared his throat. "Sorry to disturb you two," he said. He turned to me. "Simon, about a dozen of us are getting together as a sort of council for the city, to decide what our first step is. We all want you to be there."

I looked up at him in shock. "Me?" I said. "Why would you want me? What help could I be?"

He seemed to ignore my question and simply said, "We're meeting in the World Trade Center in an hour. Get dressed and show up. It'd be an honor to have your services."

And with that, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

I sighed. "Well," I said, "I guess I better get dressed."

"You aren't actually thinking of going, are you?" Jeanette implored.

"Of course I am, Jeannette. I need to do what I can to help, whatever that is."

She groaned. "Look, I dunno about this John Gault guy. Did you see the way he handled that crowd yesterday? He's a good politician, and good politicians are not to be trusted."

I rolled my eyes. "You just don't like him because he saw you in your underwear. Besides, leadership skills like that could come in handy in the Quarantine."

"Look just please don't go. There has got to be other ways you could help out around the city."

I groaned and turned to her, raising my eyebrows. "You don't really think that. I can't do physical work, which is what will be available. And if I'm sitting in my room uselessly, people will start to get pissed off at us pretty quickly. Don't believe me? Just look at that huge crowd yesterday for example. It's a delicate world we live in now, Jeannette, and if one little thing throws everything off balance, we're fucked. What we need are stable jobs where we help out and we don't risk our bodies, where we earn these rooms and we keep resentment towards us as low as possible."

Jeannette sighed. "I guess you're right. But isn't there anywhere else you could go besides politics? I just don't see that as a very desirable field."

By now I was fully dressed in the nice suit I had brought with me. I smiled at Jeannette reassuringly. "Tell you what, I could probably get you a job at a medical center in the future, seeing as though you were a med student when the war broke out."

Jeannette nodded without saying anything as her eyes sunk to the floor. I decided to leave it at that and practically ran out our front door.

Being outside the hotel building was a scary ordeal. Of course, we had all seen it before. But I guess I had forgotten over night just how crappy it was. Cold and dirty people were maneuvering around rusty, motionless cars which littered the cracked streets, reminding me that I had no idea how I was going to get to my destination on time. Walk? No, too slow. Cars were useless as far as I could see, not that I could drive anyway.

Suddenly a quant little bell rang to my right. I looked to see a man riding a bright yellow bike he had probably just found. I made a snap decision and ran into his path, waving my arms. "I say! Hello! Would you hold up for a moment?"

The man squeezed the breaks. The bike screeched and came to a halt next to me. "What do you want?" he grunted in a deep, low voice.

"Well," I said, trying to be polite but urgent, "I'm Simon Seville. I'm a member of the Council - your new government."

The man laughed at this. "Government? That's a good one, ass hole. Now get outta my way."

I was taken back slightly by this man's manners, or lack thereof. "No," I said firmly, "I need to get to the World Trade Center, pronto. And you're going to take me."

The man gritted his teeth and thought for a moment before returning his gaze to my annoyed face. "And if I decide not to?"

"The full power of the New Society will come down upon you," I said flatly.

Despite the fact that I was pretty sure that I was full of bullshit, he nodded down at me, indicating I was allowed on his bike. I gleefully hopped on the handle bars as he pushed off.

We traveled through a good portion of the city, swerving around cussing people as well as remnants of the old Manhattan: cars, lights, trash bins, and the occasional dead tree on the cracked sidewalk. It all looked the same to me.

"I'm not exactly sure how to get there!" I yelled back to him, trying to be clear over the wind brushing by me from the bike going forward.

"That's ok!" he replied. "I know. I used to live around here."

"Oh no kidding!"

"Yeah…" he trailed off. "Before the war! This bike was mine, I used it to get around!"

"I bet it was easier getting around back then, when the cars were actually moving!"

He took a good look around at the dead world around us. "Nah," he said finally, "the cars are moving at about the same rate as they always have! All that's missing are horns honking at me!"

I laughed with the man.

Finally we screeched to a stop at the front step to the World Trade Center. I hopped to the ground. "Thanks for the ride, Mr." I trailed off trying to remember if he had told me his name.

"Lee," he said. "And no problem." I nodded at him and turned to begin walking up the concrete steps to the building, when he spoke again: "listen, when you're doing your… government stuff in there, please just try to keep guys like me in mind. I was lucky enough to be able to find my old apartment last night and sleep in that, but lots of people weren't so lucky. I heard some slept on couches in the lobbies of abandoned motel buildings while some slept on moldy cardboard boxes in alleyways. Just… remember. Don't just go all out for your _lucky_ buddies."

I looked him up and down. "Mr. Lee, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," he said, nodding.

"Why are you here? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but… they kind of hinted that those of us put into the quarantine would be more of the… um… wealthier people in America. But you own an apartment in the heart of Manhattan."

He smiled. "I owned that dump before I was drafted into the war as a Sergeant First Class. But over the course of the war, I managed to make my way all the way to Colonel."

"Well, _Colonel Lee_," I said, chuckling, "I can personally assure you that every act of this council, no matter what it is, will be for the good of the people of the New Society."

Apparently satisfied, he smiled at me one last time and pushed his bike off the way we had come.

I entered the Center with a reestablished confidence. The lady at the front desk immediately recognized me and prompted me to follow her down a series of hallways and corners. We finally stopped at a large dark brown door with a gold knob and the numbers "119" printed in large bold gold font.

The lady opened the door, revealing about fifteen to twenty men standing around chatting. I walked nervously inside as the lady closed it behind me. The entire room fell silent as every pair of eyes locked onto me. Suddenly I got the feeling that I was in some sort of shark tank, and I was all alone.

Suddenly a familiar voice greeted me from across the room. "Simon!" Brady Moore pushed his way through the men and women between us until he was right in front of me. "Simon Seville! So glad you could come." He turned to everyone else in the room. "Okay, everyone is here now. So if you could all take a seat we will get down to business."

Everybody made their way over to a large table made of dark smooth wood and sat down on cushy leather seats. I followed suit, hopping up, grabbing the rim of the chair at the corner of the table, and climbing up the rest of the way with just a little difficulty. I looked around to see a few bottles of wine scattered evenly around the table.

"Now then," former Governor Moore's voice commanded the attention of every man and woman in the room. "Before we begin I would like to remind you that Big Brother most certainly has a camera or two hidden in this room. Please keep this in mind as we wouldn't want to say anything to upset the GFFA."

"Screw the GFFA!" John Gault's comments in his gruff, southern accent challenged Brady Moore. "If they don't like what we say, they can always cut to one of the pop stars searching their hotel rooms for lip gloss."

Every one, including myself, chuckled at Gault as he delighted himself by pouring another glass of wine for himself.

Moore cleared his throat. "Let's just try to be respectful. There's no reason to make Big Brother angry with us."

Gault laughed. "If he gets angry at us for a few skeptical comments, then I have no clue what we did in order to be dumped on this island."

"Here! Here!" I suddenly called, without quite realizing. All eyes turned to me, and the room became very hot to me. I cleared my throat, sweat beginning to trickle down my cheeks. "From this moment on, anyone in this room should consider themselves to speak out freely. If Big Brother doesn't like it, he can stick it up his own overweight ass."

To my pleasant surprise, everyone laughed. Smirking, Gault raised his glass to me. Being unable to do the same, I nodded back at him, pleased with myself.

"Yes yes, ok," Brady Moore desperately budded in on the commotion. "Listen everyone, we need to get down to business, please!"

Everyone quieted down.

"Now then," Moore continued. "we have quite a few serious problems to attend to on this island and a few thousand people to take care of. Quite frankly I have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?"

I raised my hand.

Moore looked surprised, but nodded at me approvingly. "Go ahead, Mr. Seville."

"If I'm being honest, I think our biggest concern is the fact that we aren't really respected by the majority of the people on this island. I mean, we'd like to call ourselves a makeshift government of this New Society, but on my way down here I spoke with a man who considered our whole organization a joke. If we want to accomplish anything as leaders, I suggest we make our first move to try and get the word out to the people. Make them feel like they have a say."

Suddenly the intern at the front desk busted through the door. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she panted, "but there's a problem at the old Lipton Hotel."

My blood froze as I realized that she was talking about the exact same hotel that me, Jeanette, and everyone else I cared about were staying at.

"What's the problem?" Gault asked gravely.

She sighed. "Armed gunmen are holding the entire place hostage. They say they have some demands in return for their release."

"How did guns make their way into the quarantine?" Moore asked.

She shrugged.

"That is a concern for another time," Gault butted in, "as of right now, we have a serious situation to deal with. If everyone in this room is serious about doing whatever they can to help the people of the New Society, please follow me to the hotel."

Everyone in the room obliged, with me to the right of Gault and Moore to the left.

_Jeanette's POV_

I tried to yell, but the gag choked me. The pole my arms were tied behind was cold and hard, making my shoulders and back sore. I panted heavily, trying to break free of my bonds. I had no idea exactly where I was; somewhere in the hotel, probably. It sounded like something was humming loudly like an engine or furnace and from what I could see it looked like some sort of boiler room.

Suddenly I heard a door behind me unlock and creak open. Heavy steel tipped boots stomped down a block of about a dozen stairs or so. I whimpered, still unable to see who had entered the room. I suddenly got my answer.

"Hello, Jeannette."

"Fuck," I said under my breath.

"You remember me? It's been a while."

I didn't even try to make a decipherable response. Especially since it was the dirt bag that had personally tied me up to this pole. Randy, as he called himself, walked around the pole in his golden suit and red tie until he faced me with a creepy smile on his face.

He suddenly frowned. "You don't look so happy to see me," he said.

I looked away, trying to avoid his gaze.

"Here," he said, reaching towards my face, "lemme help you out."

He took the gag off of my mouth. I choked as new air finally filled my mouth, replacing the old, dry air that had been there before.

"I'm sorry I had to do this with you, Jeannette, but you tried to escape one too many times. And we need you. You're more special than those other useless piles of skeeze that we have upstairs." His smile grew wider, more unnatural. "You are our main ticket out of here."

Suddenly the door behind me opened again. "Randy, the politicians are almost here," a voice at the door way called.

"Good. I'm sorry Jeannette, but I'm going to have to leave you here again." He tilted my chin up so that I was staring right into his gaze. "Catch ya later."

Then he walked off behind me, up the stairs, and I heard the door close behind them.

But then suddenly, without the door opening, footsteps began trudging down the stairs. I jumped, and then groaned as the footsteps hit the floor and continued my way. I was expecting Randy.

So I was very shocked when the man appeared in front of me and was not Randy, but a scruffier, fatter man who was also in a suit.

He kneeled down until he was closer to my chipmunk level. I looked at him confused, then remembered that I could talk. "Who are you? And what do you want?"

He sighed. "You know… I was always your biggest fan before the war. And I kept it secret from my wife, but… I think for the longest time I was in love with you."

My eyes widened. "Get away from me," I tried to say with a firm harshness in my voice, but unfortunately it all turned to blind fear.

He smiled at me and began stroking the back of my head with his index finger. "I just don't know what it is about you, but, for a chipmunk… you're actually really beautiful." Without warning, he stuck his finger between my thighs.

"No," I pleaded, "stop. Please."

But it didn't stop. And it got worse from there.

_Simon's POV_

When we arrived at the hotel, it seemed as though the whole New Society had gathered to see what was going on. The whole government began trying to make their way through the gigantic crowd, but it was easier said than done.

Once I was about halfway through the crowd, a high-pitched voice to my right stopped me dead in my tracks. "SIMON!"

I looked to my right to see Eleanor, Alvin and Brittany rushing up to me. Ellie was the first to reach me and flung her arms around me, hugging me tightly. Suddenly, my shoulder began to feel wet and I could hear Eleanor choking through tears.

"Ellie, what's wrong?"

She looked at me with puffy red eyes. "Theodore's still in the hotel!"

My heart sank. _No… not my brother. Not Theo._

"But that's not all, Simon," Brittany said. "Jeannette's in there, too."

My eyes widened in shock. Suddenly, Brady Moore's voice called to me from a few yards away. "Simon! We need you to some with us!"

I let Ellie go and ran off to join the politicians.

When I had caught up with them, I noticed Moore with the blow horn from yesterday in his hand. Facing the crowd around the building, he raised it to his mouth. "Okay! Okay! We need everyone to please quietly and calmly walk away and tend to your own business! There's nothing to see here!"

I wasn't expecting much of a positive result, as Governor Moore didn't exactly have a good track record of getting people to do what he wanted on this island. But, much to my surprise, the majority of the crowd began clearing out without making much of a fuss.

With an "about time"-like grin on his face, he turned to the hotel. "Attention, gunmen in the hotel," he said through the blow horn. "I require a word with your leader, please?"

Suddenly, a tall blonde man with a gold suit and red tie stuck his upper body through a third story window and pointed an AK-47 down at us. "That'd be me!" he called. "What do you lousy shit-heads want?"

Brady Moore was taken quite aback by the heavy gunnery being aimed at him. "Umm… we wish to speak terms with you inside the hotel lobby. We understand that you have hostages and some demands to go with them."

He smiled. "That's right! 'Bout damn time. Three of you can follow me up to the top floor."

Moore seemed pleased, but suddenly Senator Gault snatched the blow horn from Moore's unsuspecting hand. "Just a minute, ass-hole!" he called up to the man in the window, wiping the smile off of his face. "We aren't going anywhere where we won't have any protection. If you want to, you're welcome to come out here and talk, unarmed and with your hands behind your head!"

The man seemed shocked at getting such firmness from a politician. He thought for a moment before saying, "fine, three of you are welcome in the lobby. It really doesn't matter to me anyway. See you then." And with that, he disappeared back into the building.

Brady Moore and John Gault glared at each other in frustration. Then they seemed to silently decide with a single look that both of them would be going. They then turned to the rest of us council members to decide who the third one would be.

Everyone else avoided their gaze, but I stepped forward. "I'll go. Both my brother and my girlfriend are in there."

They nodded in agreement, and with that the three of us bravely stepped through the shattered rotating glass door and entered the dimly lit hotel.

**And there you go! Phew! Again, sorry that took so long. Don't forget to review and let me know how I did!**


	4. Day 2 (Part 2)

**Well, hopefully if you're still reading, it means you liked the last chapter, so that probably means you'll like this one. And this one should be a little less graphic than the last one.**

Day 2 (cont'd)

_Simon's POV_

The hallway leading to the lobby was littered with broken glass and picture frames. Phrases like "HERE STOOD MRS. DUMBASS" were written clearly on the wall in fresh, dark red blood.

We finally turned the corner to the lobby. The tall blonde man sat at a rectangular wooden table, sipping coffee casually. Three chairs His AK-47 rested on the table next to him, but there wasn't another man in sight.

He looked up and smiled at us as we approached him. "Welcome," he said slyly.

Brady Moore cautiously pulled out one of the chairs across from the blonde guy and motioned for me to sit. I obeyed as he pulled one out for himself and sat. Gault remained standing a few feet behind us.

As if sensing the tension in the air, the blonde guy cleared his throat and continued: "You will refer to me as Randy. I already know who you three are. You're Brady Moore," he said pointing to Moore in the seat across from him. "You inherited the single most crappy state economy in the U.S. and somehow managed to make it even crappier." Moore said nothing as Randy turned his attention to Gault. "And you; you're John Gault. You get a lot of shit from the press. You DO realize you were pegged for being the ring-leader of the most counter-productive senate in the history of America?"

Gault squinted at Randy. "Does it really matter any more?"

Randy smirked. "I suppose not." He then turned to me. "And you… you're not a politician. Nope. I know you; you're that Seville guy. Pop-star." He chuckled. "You'll never believe this, but, we have a couple people here with us who you know. Even care about."

I nodded. "I know." I was trying to ignore his attempts at getting into my head.

He laughed. "Already ran into some of your other rodent buddies outside, eh? I bet that fat green one told you all about it."

"Shut up," I said, glaring at him.

Suddenly, Moore butted in. "Fellas, please. Perhaps we could begin the negotiations?" He looked over at Randy hopefully.

"Of course," Randy said, nodding. "We have a lot to talk about."

"Hardly," John Gault growled. He walked forward and leaned forward over table, bringing his eye level square with Randy's. "Here's what's going to happen: you release all hostages to us by the end of tonight… and we'll give you a ten second head start to make a break for the ocean."

Randy laughed. "Oh really? I don't think so. You see, Mr. Gault, you may not have any experience in negotiations, so let me fill you in. Everything revolves around leverage. And right now, I'd say I have just about all of the leverage. I have hostages, a valuable hotel, and not to mention guns and explosives. Unless I'm missing something, I think that I'll be dictating the terms toady."

"Here's what I think," Gault retorted, "I think that we have something that you really want, but you can't get it by yourself. Otherwise you would have taken your guns and gone on a rampage through the city trying to get it."

Randy laughed out loud. "We aren't barbarians, Mr. Gault. It's not in our best interest to kill. We will if we have to, but if everything works out as we planned, then everybody in this hotel building will walk away scratch free." He paused, then smiled at me. "They might even thank us."

"Listen you piece of filth," Gault snarled, "I'm not going to deal with this bull shit. You have three minutes to return the hostages to us and then ten more seconds to make a run for it."

I put my paw on Gault's forearm. He turned to me, almost panting. His face was blood red and sweat was trickling down his forehead. "Senator Gault," I said, "could I please speak to you for a moment."

He sighed. "Certainly."

We both walked off a short way towards the hall so that Randy could not hear us. Moore followed despite not being invited.

Once we were certain Randy could not hear us, I turned my attention back to Gault. "Look," I said, "I admire your determination to be firm with this guy, but you need to be a little calmer and, for the moment, a little more open to negotiation."

"But Simon," he replied, "you can't just give this guy what he wants. We need to scare him into thinking we actually have leverage."

"I understand where you're coming from, but you need to give in a little. At least pretend that you are willing to listen."

"He can't think that we're desperate, Simon."

"Listen, Gault," I said, beginning to get frustrated, "you may be trying to think of the greater good here. But I have two people whom I love trapped in this place. And if just one thing goes awry, they could die. If they haven't already."

He looked me up and down. "Alright, Simon. I rest the burden of the remainder of these negotiations on you."

As we turned back towards Randy at his table, I caught Brady Moore shooting an icy glare at Gault.

Gault responded by adding in: "Good luck, little man."

The three of us made our way back over to the table, where Randy awaited smirking at us. "Have you finished consulting with each other?" he asked as Gault pulled the middle chair out for me. I hopped up thankfully and stood on my tip-toes to see Randy slouching with a cup of coffee in his hand. Gault and Moore took a seat to either side of me.

"Yes," I said. "I believe we are ready to begin negotiations."

Randy looked surprised at me being the one to answer. But he nodded and began: "I'll make this short. The first order of business for you to get your people back is by building a boat."

Our eyes widened. "A boat?" Moore asked.

I thought about the billions of people around the globe, specifically Big Brother, who just heard that.

Randy grinned from ear to ear. "That's right. You on the outside are going to construct a boat for us, if you can't find one that is. Serviceable enough to make it across the strait to mainland New York. And then once you have the boat, I expect that my colleagues and I will have a perfectly clear passage way to the harbor. And trust me, we will hold our hostages close every step of the way. If I get even the smallest sense of going wrong, people start to die."

We all blinked in amazement. Had we really just heard that? "Randy," I muttered, "what you're talking about is suicide. You'll never make it past the GFFA forces. You heard what Big Brother said before deportation: 'Any attempt at escape will result in immediate termination.'"

Randy laughed, putting on his best surprised face. "Escape? Who said anything about escape, Mr. Seville? We simply want a nice pleasure cruise around the island. Maybe some fishing."

Moore groaned. "Look, regardless of your intentions, Big Brother isn't going to allow a boat to just roam freely around the strait. He'll blow you sky high."

"That's what you think," Randy responded, grinning ear to ear. "But we have a secret weapon. Big Brother wouldn't dare touch us."

"What secret weapon?" I asked.

He eyed me. "That's for me to know, and for you shit heads to find out. Now you know our demands and you know your deadline. I suggest you get to work."

The three of us stood up, turned towards the hallway which led to the revolving glass door, and began walking. Gault was in front, followed by Moore, followed by me. Just as I was about to round the corner, Randy's threatening voice broke out from behind me. "Simon!" I stopped dead in my tracks, but didn't turn to face him. "Don't even try to screw me over," he continued, "or else I'll do things to your girlfriend that you can't even imagine. Understand?"

I didn't answer. All I could think of was, _I SO want to fuck you up right now. _Without even acknowledging him, I turned the corner to the hallway and began making my way to the revolving glass door where Moore and Gault were waiting.

_Jeanette's POV_

It was finally all over. The scruffy man smirked down at me as he wiped his fingers with his shirt. I spit at his shoes in defiance, glaring daggers back up at his smug fat-ass face, as if trying to show that what he had just done to me had not fazed me but had only made me angry. It was a pretty pathetic attempt, as I could not help but whimper at the pain I know felt. The guy cleared his throat, gave me a smug, sarcastic "see ya" salute, and without another word he trudged up the stairs and left.

There was nothing I could do but slump to the ground and cry. Was anyone trying to rescue me?

_Brittany's POV_

We all waited impatiently; the politicians, the rest of the crowd, and of course us chipmunks. We hadn't heard any gunfire yet, but that did not necessarily mean they were still alive.

Eleanor sat on the curb pavement with her face pressed into her knees. I couldn't tell whether she was crying or just really badly wanted to. I guess I'd be lying if I had said I didn't want to cry along with her. I just told myself that I needed to stay strong so that I could help support her.

Suddenly, the glass revolving doors began revolving as Brady Moore, Simon, and the other politician guy stepped out with seriously concerned faces. Eleanor quickly snapped her head up from her legs as if hoping Jeanette and Theodore would walk out along with them. They didn't.

The three of us ran up to meet Simon, who gave us each a giant hug. It was Alvin who asked the first and most obvious question: "So what did they want?"

Simon sighed. "They want a boat. In three days flat."

Eleanor gasped. "A boat? Like, to try and get to the mainland?"

"Yeah pretty much. They say they have a secret weapon so that Big Brother will let them cross. Honestly, that part doesn't really concern us. He says that once they are at the peer with the boat, they will release Jeanette and Theo, as well as the rest of the hostages to boot."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Eleanor cried.

"Ellie," Simon murmured calmly, "we aren't just going to pull a functional boat out of our ass in three days. And what are the odds that the GFFA left one behind by accident?"

Eleanor wiped a tear that was trickling down her cheek. "So what do we do."

Simon shrugged. "Hopefully we can throw something together that could maybe buy us a little extra time."

Suddenly, Brady Moore trudged slowly over to us, clutching his stomach and staring at the ground. He stopped and looked at Simon with sickly eyes. "Big Brother wants a word with us," he said grimly. "And it doesn't sound like they'll be very nice words."

_Theodore's POV_

I slumped to the ground, panting so hard I couldn't help but drown. My arms were pinned tightly behind my back in an uncomfortable position. I was totally blindfolded, but I was pretty sure that the room I was locked in was pitch black anyway.

The room was small, no bigger than a large walk in closet, and solid concrete formed the cold floor and walls. I had walked and felt around enough to be able to tell. I was all alone, and by this point very bored.

I expected help to come at some point. I even prayed. I had never prayed before in my life, never.

_Simon's POV_

The entire committee met up just outside of the office room that we had all gathered in before. On the other side of the well polished wooden door, supposedly, was Big Brother and his cohorts. No one made a sound. I gulped down my inherent fear and nodded at Brady Moore, prompting him to open the door.

He took a deep breath and reached food the shiny gold door knob. He slowly twisted his hand and pushed the door open.

Big Brother sat motionless at the end of the table at the opposite end of the room as us. Around him stood two men in black suits as well as about half a dozen GFFA soldiers armed with guns.

Big Brother smiled at us. "Come in!" The politicians nervously entered the room one by one, closing the door carefully behind them. Big Brother motioned towards the table. "Sit down, please! We have much to discuss!" Once Big Brother had caught sight of Gault, who had obviously been attempting to hide himself after his previous comments about the dictator in this very room, Big Brother pointed to him and said, "You! You come here! You will get the honor of sitting next to me!"

Gault hesitated, but obliged, keeping his eyes aimed strictly at the floor.

Soon, everyone was seated. "Now then," Big Brother spoke up, "As me and my comrades have witnessed, you have had some trouble keeping things in your new city under control. We have been very disappointed in your lack of competence. You even let armed gunmen keep hostages in one of your designated shelter buildings. Very underwhelming."

Gault wanted to say something snarky; I could see it in his eyes. But perhaps it was that he couldn't think up quite the words to express himself, or maybe it was just the pure intimidation of sitting amidst Big Brother and his body guards armed to the teeth that kept him from opening his mouth.

Instead, it was I who said something: "It was _you_! You planted guns in an area where those men would find them! You're trying to sabotage this whole thing and make Americans look foolish and stupid!"

With an annoyed look on his face, Big Brother abruptly stood up and walked towards me. He suddenly stopped right behind my chair, leaned into me ear, and whispered, "You'd be wise to hold your tongue, Mr. Seville. This is my city, this is my island. I use it however I wish. And yes, you are here to prove my point. To keep your filthy American people content with the lives I have given them. You should consider yourself lucky; you get to live here, away from all that. Live as you please." He smirked. "If you survive, that is. As of right now I wouldn't count on it."

He then turned to his men and shouted something in Mandarin. They all murmured amongst themselves, nodding. Big Brother sat back down, obviously happy with himself.

"Now then," he said to all of us. "Back to the issue at hand. This… Randy. He has requested a boat, correct?"

We all nodded. I groaned. I knew this would come up.

Brady Moore, for whatever reason, thought this would be a good time to pipe up. "We have already begun search parties, as well as began construction in case we find nothing."

Big Brother held up his hand to shut him up. "I know," he said. "As of right now, your search parties are wasting their times. We left no way for you to escape this island, much less a boat." He laughed. "But there is also no need to hastily construct a shitty boat. As your Big Brother, I am willing to cut you a deal."

I raised my eyebrows. "What kind of deal?"

He glared at me. What, did he expect me to be quiet the rest of the meeting? Either way, he did eventually condescend to answer me. "Those armed men in the hotel building… they have taken one of my men hostage. He was caught in the alley while helping plant the guns. He's vital to this whole television program. He is the brain of the operation. We need him back, safely."

"Get to the point," Gault finally said. "What does any of this have to do with us?"

Big Brother eyed him. I could tell he was beginning to get annoyed with our collective presence. He felt weary from being forced to condescend to actually personally address us.

"This is Hao Zhan," Big Brother said, gesturing to a relatively tall Asian man in a black suit behind him who stepped forward obediently. "He has volunteered to take part in a mission which I am afraid I must ask you to carry out."

"What kind of mission?" Gault asked.

"A rescue mission. Simply, sneak into the hotel building, and swap Hao Zhan for our important hostage. All without the knowledge of Randy or his thugs. Hao Zhan will act as somewhat of a stunt double. He looks and sounds almost exactly the same as our hostage. The only difference is that he is of no import to us or our operation. When you bust our hostage out and bring him our safely and quietly, then we will plant a boat in your Eastern Harbor. You let Randy know that you have his boat, and the rest goes as you agreed. He marches hist men and women down to the harbor to confirm you have held up your end of the deal, and once he is satisfied, he releases your people back to your people and attempts to cross the strait with Hao Zhan."

"What happens then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smirked at us, then slammed his fist into the strong polished wooden table with a loud thud. "BOOM!" He said. It was as simple as that.

Hao Zhan's face stayed emotionless throughout. I hoped for his sake that he did not know English, and that he was not aware of what was going to happen to him.

"Any questions?" Big Brother said. No one raised their hands. "I didn't think so." He stood up and all of his men besides Hao Zhan followed him to the door. One of them opened it for him and they all walked outside. Before they closed the door, Big Brother turned to us one last time. "If I were you, I'd wait sixty seconds before exiting this room. Just a suggestion."

And with that the door shut loudly.

We all waited exactly sixty seconds. And when we finally exited the room, there was not a single trace of a GFFA member or Big Brother any where. No one had seen them, they had vanished.

The search parties were canceled and plans were drawn and gone over a thousand times to break into the hotel room… tomorrow was the big day.

**There you go! Review please and let me know what you want to happen! I might give into requests if I see one I really like.**


	5. Day 3 (Part 1)

**Thanks for reading this chapter! I really like all of the positive feedback that was given for the last chapter, so thanks all who reviewed and gave me some great ideas for future chapters. **

**Anyway, I'm sorry, but this chapter may drag at times. The next one will be AWESOME but this one may drag.**

**Day 3 (Part 1)**

_Simon's POV_

We had kept Hao Zhan tied to a flag pole with his hands behind his back last night. I felt a little bad, to be honest, but I think we all felt a little safer that way, even though if Big Brother had really wanted to kill or sabotage us, he could have done it easily with or without Hao Zhan. And so, he sat there all night, with men that Brady Moore had hired with the promise of double food provisions taking hourly shifts watching him, assuring that no "miracle" allowed him to escape.

The next morning I woke myself up at 7:00 a.m. I had already told Brittany what she had to do, and that she needed to meet me at a specific corner a few blocks away from Randy's hotel building. It also happened to be where a tall, well built man with a Red Sox cap was on duty watching Hao Zhan. Both seemed to be only half awake. The man drowsily looked over to us approaching and nodded at us. The report was that he never even tried. It was as if he had actually volunteered to be there, as Big Brother had said.

The man untied Hao Zhan, who stood up and stared at the three of us. "Has he spoken any English?" I asked the man.

He shook his head. "Nope. He mutters a lot, but I can't make it out. It sounds like Chinese, but I couldn't tell you for sure."

I nodded. "Thank you. You can go. Go get some sleep."

He and Brittany looked at me in shock. Leave us here? With _him_? Are you serious? But supposedly he was desperate enough for sleep that he tipped his cap at us and jogged off, probably to wherever in the city he had been taking refuge during the quarantine.

I stare up at Hao Zhan, who in turn looked down at Brittany and I. I waited for him to do something, but he didn't move.

"Do you speak English?" I asked him, slowly and clearly.

He glared at me in contempt. "Dog Face!" He growled at me.

Brittany chuckled. "I guess you do," she said.

He spit in her direction, provoking a look of disgust from Brittany's face. "You're filthy language tastes like shit! Shit!" He spat again, this time at me.

I wasn't going to deal with this. "Look, Hao Zhan!" I yelled at him. "_You_ volunteered to be here, did you not? For you're fucking Big Brother? You're so blind to how that piece of shit treats his people that you'd do _anything_ for him, right? Right?"

He looked taken aback, but managed to regain his form. "Stupid rodent!" He yelled. "Both of you! You're ignorance is like a child and your stupidity fills my noise worse than any other stench!"

"Ok, man, calm down," Brittany said.

"Roast in hell, dog face!" he snarled.

I suddenly remembered that this man was probably forced to be here, given some stupid-ass excuse, told it was for Big Brother, and now the poor thing is still trying to figure out in his own mind just why his loving Big Brother would abandon him this way, to die in the presence of all of these dog-faced Yankees.

"Look," I said, "We have a mission to carry out. I'm sorry but you have to come with us. Has Big Brother told you exactly what must be done?"

He nodded.

"Well, in that case, Brittany, Hao Zhan, follow me now."

He was hesitant, but after spitting at our feet one more time just to try and reassert his dominance over us, he followed us as we began walking to the hotel.

After we had walked a block, Brittany caught up with me. "Hey… Simon. Umm, I don't mean to sound like a brat, here, but… why exactly did this need to be me?"

"Because Alvin and Eleanor can't know about this mission," I answered flatly.

"And why not?"

"Because Alvin isn't reliable, you know that more than anyone. And if Eleanor finds out we were planning a rescue mission from the hotel building, what do you think her reaction would be when someone told her that getting Theodore out wasn't part of the plan?"

Brittany bowed her head. She knew exact;y how Eleanor would react. She'd be pissed. Probably go on a fit. Maybe try to alter or compromise the mission.

It wasn't long before we we just a few yards away from the hotel building. Brittany ran towards the front side while Hao Zhan followed me around the back.

_Brittany's POV_

I was asked to play a roll in the plan to get the GFFA dude out of the hotel. The whole thing was explained to me, in detail. I was told everything regarding the meeting with Big Brother. And I was given a very important job.

I walked nervously up to the hotel building, which showed no signs of life from the outside. No noise, no movement leaked out, which gave me shudders as I thought about all of the people inside being held at gun point, praying that they would be alive for at least the next hour. Theodore and Jeanette were probably doing the same.

After what seemed like forever, I was standing about ten yards away from the broken revolving glass door. I stood there, motionless, waiting for a signal from Simon, a fake bird call, to tell me that it was time to begin.

Suddenly, a beam of light shone into my eye from the ground. I looked down and saw an old U.S. quarter sitting face down on a pavement. I bent over, picked it up, and examined it curiously. It was made all the way back in 2014, yet George Washington's face shined like it was brand new.

I almost cried, staring at it with a heavily nostalgic feeling going through my gut. It goes without saying that the production of these as well as all former U.S. coins and dollar bills were discontinued, the value of them reduced to zero, and the carrying of them outlawed. In their place, the standard GFFA system of money began to be forced upon North America. Coins entirely were abandoned. Instead, many different designs for paper money, all featuring Big Brother's smug face rather than the face of a great American leader from the past, began replacing everything. Pennies, fifty dollar bills, you name it. It was all a small part in Big Brother's very large plan to destroy everything American's had "been forced to" hold dear during the years of the U.S.

American history had always been my least favorite subject in school, back before the war. It was something I now longed for. I wanted so badly to remember all of the words of the Declaration of Independence or how any speech by any past president went. I wished to God that I had been paying more attention.

I dropped the quarter and listened carefully for the signal.

_Simon's POV_

Hao Zhan and I hid behind a large bush, wondering if Brittany was in position. We had carried over everything we needed for our mission. We peered through the cracked and broken lower-level windows of the hotel building. Many tall, scruffy men with AK-47's and shotguns. There was the occasional man or woman on their knees, their heads ducked, their hands tied behind their backs in unnatural positions. Randy seemed careful in separating the hostages into three of four to a single room, with a single guard in charge of watching them.

Speak of the devil, on the fifth floor, we could faintly see a man that looked a lot like Randy, yelling at one of his subordinates. It was time…

_Brittany's POV_

I still wasn't sure if I had been spotted by Randy or any of his gang. The hotel still seemed lifeless to me. But I couldn't help but feel that I was being watched by something.

Out of the blue, a loud, outspoken whistle which sounded like some sort of bird call to me echoed from around the building. My first thought was that this was my signal. But after a brief moment of thinking about it, I considered the possibility that this was an actual bird call. And Simon still wasn't ready.

I decided that it was too late to delay the mission. I needed to do this, now.

"RANDY!" I yelled at the building. "RANDY! YOU PATHETIC SACK OF SHIT! I WANNA WORD WITH YOU! SHOW YOURSELF!"

_Simon's POV_

That was Brittany all right. Her yelling did the trick, Randy and his men heard her and ran yelling towards the front of the building with guns ready in their hands. There were men who stayed behind, but they seemed more concerned about the door that led _into_ the room than they did with the hostages themselves.

Before I could realize that I had not prompted Brittany on exactly what to do once Randy had pointed a gun at her face, I turned to Hao Zhan. "Do you know where Big Brother's guy is being kept?"

"15th floor out of thirty. In a staff room with no windows and a single door leading in and out. Perfectly in the center of the building. He is guarded by three men with AK-47's at any given time."

I nodded, taking a long rope with a grappling hook and handing it to Hao Zhan. "Fifteenth floor it is, then."

_Brittany's POV_

The hotel suddenly came to life as almost half a dozen armed men showed themselves from behind drawn curtains in hgher-level windows. Randy walked out casually through the broken revolving door. He looked around as if expecting a bigger crowd, along with maybe some of the politicians. He looked down and seemed surprised to see me and not Simon. "What do you want?" he growled down at me.

Shit. That was a good question. What _did_ I want? Simon never actually clarified.

Randy raised an eyebrow at me. "I asked you a question, dammit!" he said impatiently. "Do you have my boat? Answer me or by God, I'll shoot you!"

This was going downhill fast. I thought quickly, before coming to a rushed conclusion: "I want to talk to my sister. _And_ my other sister's boyfriend. I want to make sure they're both alive."

He laughed at me. "And what if I simply tell you to piss off?"

I shrugged. "I'd assume that they are both already dead, in which case I tell Simon that he can cancel expeditions to get your boat, in which case you are stuck with a bunch of useless hostages that no one on this island gives a damn about, with a food cut-off from Big Brother."

He looked at me up and down, obviously in shock. "You guys would just let all of those people die? I don't believe you. In fact, I don't believe the council even sent you here. I think you're just wasting my time."

I smirked at him. "Think whatever you like. All I _can_ tell you is that when Simon gets mad - like he would if he found out Theodore and Jeanette were dead - he can be a real bitch."

_Simon's POV_

I watched as Hao Zhan swung the grappling hook in circles, each time the circle getting progressively wider and wider, until finally he let it go. The hook went flying up towards the building and landed with terrific accuracy through a large hole in a fifteenth story window. All this happened seemingly without alerting any of Randy's men.

"Nice shot!" I muttered.

Hao Zhan ignored me. He tugged on the rope to make sure that the hook had lodged itself into the wall. After the rope didn't budge, he nodded in the direction of the window, prompting me to begin crawling towards the hotel building. We both kept low; me army crawling so that the armed men on the first floor would not notice me, and Hao Zhan ducking behind the bush.

Once I had reached the hotel wall, unnoticed so far as I could tell, Hao Zhan tossed the end of the rope to me and ducked back behind the bush. I tugged on the rope, just to make absolutely certain that the hook was not going to give in. After I became satisfied that it could support my weight, I began climbing. As a chipmunk, climbing a rope was naturally not very hard. However, after years of basically acting like a human, I realized that I was somewhat out of shape for this type of thing.

Nevertheless, after a few moments I had reached the window. Bright red curtains hindered me from seeing inside clearly. I carefully pulled them aside just enough so that I could peer into the room and look out for any guards. No one inside.

As quickly as I could, I pulled myself over the window sill and slid into the room. I stuck my head back out the window and waved at Hao Zhan, signaling for him to follow my lead. He army crawled up to the rope okay, but once there he seemed hesitant. He stared at me, as if unsure of what I was going to do once he began climbing.

I, for one, didn't have time for this bull shit. I needed him to get his ass up to that window before one of Randy's spotted him, but I also couldn't call down to him for fear of alerting them. I impatiently waved him up one more time, which oddly enough seemed to convince him that, at least for now, I was firmly on _his_ side. He started climbing up the rope, which he did with noticeable ease. It wasn't long before he had reached the window sill. I didn't even need to help him in.

_Brittany's POV_

Randy finally finished talking to one of his men, a tall, even scruffier man in an ugly bright yellow suit, and both of them walked back over to me from right in front of the broken revolving door. They stopped just in front of me, looking down at me in a way that was obviously supposed to be intimidating.

I held my ground, staring right back up at them, unfazed.

Randy suddenly smiled at me. "We've decided you can see both of your loved ones, for three minutes each."

"Fantastic," I said cynically.

"But first," the other one said, smirking, "you need to be searched. To be sure you aren't carrying anything… dangerous."

My eyes widened, as just by the way this guy was staring at me I knew where this was going. "Don't you dare touch me!"

"Aww… don't you want to see your loved ones?" the guy said.

I groaned. Jeanette owes me big time, I thought.

I obediently spread my arms and legs, like they have you do at airport security, and braced myself for it all to start as the scruffy guy bent towards me, chuckling to himself.

_Simon's POV_

We tiptoed through each hallway, checked carefully around every corner, ducked behind a laundry cart every time we picked up the slightest hint of footsteps.

But it wasn't long before we had reached the entrance to the room that they were supposedly holding Big Brother's man. Inside were three men armed to the teeth, ready to kill anyone who wasn't wanted and who tried to break in, not to mention kill their hostage if necessary. If that guy were to somehow be killed, Big Brother would more than likely shit a chicken.

I leaned over to Hao Zhan and whispered, "we need to get them all out of the room."

He nodded. Then he knocked on the door and did his best American thug impression. "AIGHT BOYS! BOSS WANT'S TO SEE YA IN THE BASEMENT!" It was clear he had been practicing that impression.

"All of us?" was the answer.

"YEAH, BITCH! ALL OF YA! NOW QUIT YOUR BITCHIN' AND GET DOWN THERE BEFORE BOSS SHOVES AN _AK _UP YOUR ASSES!"

Without thinking, we both dove into a nearby laundry cart full of old, moldy, unwashed towels and hoped that they concealed us as all three thugs shuffled out the door, murmuring angrily amongst themselves, as they walked off.

As soon as we heard no more noise, we both pulled the towels off of us and hopped out of the cart. We walked back over to the entrance to find it wide open. We peered inside to see a man on his knees with a bag over his head. His head was bowed and his hands were tied to two different metal tables. It looked uncomfortable, maybe even excruciating.

We walked over to where he was, and he didn't move. Hao Zhan finally pulled the bag off of his head. He looked up at us, severely gagged, and I realized just how right Big Brother was about how much Hao Zhan looked like him.

I ripped the duct tape off his mouth, allowing out to spit out both of the dish towels that had been shoved in his mouth. He starting talking in Mandarin with Hao Zhan in a very frightened tone of voice. Meanwhile I was untying both of his wrists.

Eventually, Hao Zhan managed to calm the guy down, and I had managed to completely free him. But as he got up, stretched his legs, Hao Zhan sighed, strutted over to where the guy used to be, picked both soggy dish towels up, and got down on his knees in the same position that the guy was just in. He turned to me and said. "Now, you must tie me up EXACTLY as this man was just tied up. Hurry, before those men return!"

It was easier said than done. I walked towards him but found tying him up and leaving him to die would be difficult to live with. "I'm sorry I have to do this Hao Zhan," I said to him softly, "but I need to. This is going to save many people. Not to mention my brother and girlfriend."

He looked at me with a certain amount of sympathy for the first time, and he said, "Your girlfriend… she's being held in the basement, bottom floor. No guards… you might be able to easily save her." He leaned forward and whispered, "if I were you… I would."

I looked at him in confusion, but just as I was about to ask him what exactly he meant, he stuffed the two soggy dish towels uncomfortably into his mouth and strapped it all in with the same piece of duct tape. He held his thumb up.

I tied both his hands up in the same awkward position as Big Brother's guy's had been. I purposely didn't look at him as I bagged his head.

Just then, we heard footsteps coming upstairs, followed by the pissed off words, "I'm gonna kill the guy who bullshitted us like that."

Us two lost no time in scrambling away as fast as we could, leaving Hao Zhan behind.

_Brittany's POV_

The guy finally stood up from his knees, satisfied.

I glared at him smirking down at me. "Find anything _dangerous_?" I asked cynically.

"Just that ass of yours," he said laughing. "Could make a grown man cry, darlin'."

This guy _so _had to die. "Now keep your end of the deal," I said flatly. "I want to see them. Now."

"Of course," Randy said, having watched every second of what was just done to me with a giant smile on his face. "Follow me."

The two men led me through the revolving glass door, first Randy then the other guy and finally me. The entire time I had to be careful not to cut my paw on any of the broken glass on the ground. Once we were through, we came into a long hall, which frankly wasn't in much better condition than the door. The wall had had holes punched into it in all over the place, broken picture glass and picture frames littered the floor, and on the wall to my right, "HERE STOOD MRS. DUMB ASS" was written in dry blood… lot's of it.

"That wasn't us, by the way," Randy said. "We found it here. All of the people who were staying in this place are still alive."

They led me through the welcoming lobby down yet another hallway, this one in slightly better shape than the last, all the way to the end to a door with a very large sign that said "EMPLOYEES ONLY". Randy dug through his pocket until he pulled out a small, silver key. He put it into the door knob, twisted his wrist, pulled the key out, and the door opened with a loud creek. I looked into the doorway to see a short flight of concrete stairs, going down.

The guy who had had his way with me went down first. Randy allowed me to go before him, which without thinking I took him up on. The three of us walked down the stairs and took a wide right.

We were in a large room, made almost entirely out of concrete. The walls, floor, and roof were all solid, cold rock. A single dim overhead light lit the place up, barely. At the center of the whole thing was a large yellow metal pole going from the floor all the way fifteen fit up to the roof. And I could have sworn that I saw two paws tied behind that pole.

The taller, scruffy guy walked over to the pole and casually turned around to face it. In return, it let out a loud gasp and scream, followed by some desperate struggling to get away. The guy laughed. "It's okay, baby. It's Buck… but I'm not here to fuck today." He waved for me to come forward. "I've got a very special visitor for you. You can thank me later," he said, winking.

I walked up next to him and turned to see the terrified face of Jeanette pushing itself as far away from Buck as possible. She has a piece of duct tape over her mouth, keeping her from screaming as much as I know Jeanette probably would have in the face of a rapist like this. She looked shocked to see me, and I was sure I heard her say "BRITTANY!" through her gag. I ran up to her and hugged her, and then ripped the duct tape off of her mouth. "Oh my GOD!" she said. "Thank God your here! Oh Jesus it was awful!"

Randy appeared behind me. "Your three minutes have officially started, sweet cheeks."

_Simon's POV_

The guy followed me all the way back to where the window was, and I showed him the rope and he climbed down without being told to. But I didn't do the same. I couldn't, not knowing where Jeanette was and how easy it might have been to save her. And I made a split-second decision that I was sure I'd regret later. I pulled the hook out of the wall and tossed the whole thing - the hook and the rope - into the bushes. Big Brother's man looked up at me in confusion but wasted no time disappearing into the city.

I went back in through the window. I was going to find Jeanette. But I had to do it quickly, and quietly.

_Brittany's POV_

I couldn't get Jeanette to stop crying. And I couldn't even tell whether they were tears of sadness or if she was just that happy to see me. "Jeanette!" I snapped. "Jeanette, focus! I only have two and a half minutes left!"

She sniffled away the remainder of her tears and looked up at me with clarity in her eyes. "Okay."

I sighed. "Now, I need to to know, have you been fed?"

She shrugged. "Sorta. Whatever that shit is that they've given us, some sort of mash, I guess technically I've been fed."

"Okay, okay. And…" I looked over to where Buck and Randy were standing, about five yards away, watching us, then leaned in closer to Jeanette to whisper, "…have they taken advantage of you?"

Jeanette nodded, looking like she was about to cry again.

"It's okay Jeanette. They'll get what's coming to them." Suddenly I looked up just in time to see Simon poking his head through the door at the top of the stairs. He saw us all down below, gave me his best "oh shit" face, and disappeared back through the door, closing it behind him.

What the hell was Simon doing down here? His mission was to get the GFFA guy out through the window, wasn't it? It suddenly hit me. He was here on purpose, to rescue Jeanette. Well fuck you Simon, can't even follow a direct order to leave the hostages. I wanted Jeanette and Theodore out of this place just as much as he did, but it had to be in due time. Even _I _was smart enough to keep _that _in mind.

"Time's up, baby cakes!" Buck called from behind me.

I looked longingly down at Jeanette. "Jean, you're going to be okay! Stay strong, you'll be out in no time."

Randy stepped beside me. "Time to go, Brittany," he said in a threatening tone of voice.

I followed Randy back up the stairs, watching as Buck strapped the duct tape back over Jeanette's mouth, touched a part of her smoothly that I was sure was too low to be above her waist, and then ran to catch up with us. Randy waited for him to reach the top of the stairs before opening the door. I kept my eye out for Simon, but as we walked through all the hallways and up damaged stairs, I never saw him. I knew he was going to try to pull some sort of dumb ass stunt, I just hoped he knew what he was doing.

_Simon's POV_

I watched as Randy and the other guy led Brittany away from the door. I was sure that she was pissed off at me, but that was the least of my troubles. Once they were out of sight, I snuck back over to the door, praying Randy hadn't locked it. To my surprise, he hadn't. I carefully opened the door and peered inside. With the exception of Jeanette tied to the pole, the room was empty. "Jeanette?" I murmured.

Jeanette whimpered with excitement, as she undoubtedly knew my voice by heart.

I ran over to the pole where she was tied to. The second I appeared in her wave of vision, a flush of relief ran over her entire face. I hugged her best as I could without hurting her, as her arms were bent behind her in a terribly unnatural position. "Okay," I said to her, "we don't have much time. Jeanette, I'm sorry but I can't bust you out right now. Sad to say, we have a deal going with Randy and if everything goes accordingly, he'll release you by the end of the day. But if your already out, they'll find out eventually and might hold onto the rest of the hostages. I can't have that on my hands, so here's what I'm going to do." I searched around the room for something small and sharp. My eyes rested on a rusty screw sitting nearby. I picked it up and placed it carefully in Jeanette's left paw, still tied behind the pole. "If anything goes wrong, and you absolutely have no other choice, this is so that you can possibly bust _yourself _out."

She nodded.

I sighed. "I need to go, now, Jean. I love you."

She nodded. A tear formed around her eye and rolled down her soft furry cheek. I used my finger to brush it off, then, without warning her, sprinted for the door. I had to get out of this building.

_Brittany's POV_

We finally stopped in front of a door on the thirtieth floor. This one also said "EMPLOYEES ONLY". This one didn't need a lock. Randy simply twisted the knob and pushed the door open. The room was pitch black, only slightly lit up by the light coming from the hallway we were standing in. Once my eyes had adjusted to the dark, I could see that the room was small, not much bigger than an average closet. The slightest hint of movement on the floor caught me off guard, but I realized it was only Theodore rolling around.

"THEO!" I ran over to where he lay on the ground. He seemed to be barely aware of his surroundings, as it took him a while to realize that it was me.

Of course, he was gagged with duct tape just like Jeanette. I ripped it off of him in frustration and lost no time talking to him. I knew without being told that my three minutes had begun.

"Theodore, talk to me… are you ok? Have you been fed? Have you… been taken advantage of?"

His answers came mostly in "what?"'s and "umm"'s.

Randy groaned in boredom. "Okay, time's up."

I turned to face him on my hind paws, angrily. "That was NOT three fucking minutes!"

He looked at me, sarcastically pretending to look scared. "Hurry it up, then."

I turned back towards Theodore, who seemed to be finally coming to. "Brittany! It's you! I can't believe it, but it's you! Thank Christ!"

I smiled down at him, even though I was pretty sure he couldn't see it in the dark. "Yeah, that's right Theo. It's Brittany. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit. God, this is the first time I've seen light since these guys locked me in here. Where even _am_ I?"

"In a closet, in the hotel."

"Did Eleanor get out? Is she okay?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "she's fine. She's so worried about you. She won't stop crying."

"Good," he said with relief. "Tell her I'm fine. Tell her I love her, and that I'll be with her again soon."

Randy was obviously getting annoyed with this fluff, so he budded in, "okay, that's your three minutes. Time to go."

I stood up and started following them out the door, then I turned to Theodore and said, "I'll tell her, Theodore! Hang tight, we'll get you outta here soo-" I was interrupted by Buck slamming the closet door in my face.

They showed me the way back towards the revolving door, through the hall with the writing in dry blood. In a fit of anger, I suddenly turned to them and said, "by the way, I know what you told me is bullshit, about the blood. Because I was staying here before. And it wasn't there. I dunno who you killed, but you're not fooling anyone with this whole 'don't believe in violence' bullshit."

Randy glared down at me, and instead of answering, gestured towards the door. I turned away from both of them and walked away, making sure to swing my ass back and forth as much as possible, satisfied that neither of those guys would be able to touch it again.

I walked out the door, once again careful not to cut my paw on any of the broken glass. One look to my left and I was surprised to see none other than Simon smiling at me smugly, leaning on a tree.

_Simon's POV_

Brittany was pissed, I could tell just by the way she glared at me. She knew I deliberately disobeyed orders not to mess with any of the hostages besides the GFFA guy. But hey, at least I didn't TECHNICALLY bust any of them out. Brittany stomped towards me, but just as she was about to say something, we both noticed Brady Moore running towards us. He stopped a few feet in between us and turned to me, gasping for air. "There's a boat… they just found it docked at the East Harbor… Big Brother must have put it there."

I nodded and turned towards the hotel building. I took a deep breath, cupped my hands over my mouth, and called, "RANDY! RANDY! CAN YOU HEAR ME? WE HAVE YOUR BOAT!"

**There you go! Hope you liked it. Like I said, next chapter is where it picks up. Don't forget to review and tell me whether or not you liked it.**


	6. Day 3 (Part 2)

**Wassup everybody? I'm back with the next chapter of Quarantine. Thank you all so much for sticking with this story and reading this chapter!**

**Day 3 (Part 2)**

_Jeanette's POV_

I waited, as tough as it was. Here I was, with a sharp screw in my hands, a tool perfectly fit for cutting me loose from these ropes and for setting me free. But Simon told me to only use it in the case of extreme emergencies, when there was no other option. He said if I was busted out, the others might not get out at all. As much as I wanted out now, I couldn't just do that to everyone else being held captive by these bastards.

Suddenly, the door behind me creaked open, followed by a loud snicker. I quickly shoved the screw behind my back. "Hey baby," a voice said.

Oh shit.

A tall, scruffy man in a gold suit walked around the pole I was tied to and smiled at me. "It's me, gorgeous," he said, "It's Buck… and I'm here to fuck."

Ugh, that damn phrase he almost always said whenever he came in. I hated it. It was so stupid. And it always meant bad news for me.

Buck laughed. "Just kidding, not today baby. Today is your lucky day! They got our boat, Jeanette! We're going to sail out of here!"

I assumed that this was what Simon had talked to me about. This was my time, I was going to be set free. Finally.

Relief flowed through my body as he untied me. I made sure to keep the screw hidden.

_Eleanor's POV_

A large crowd of at least five hundred people had gathered, as everyone had heard the good news. They had found a boat; Randy was getting his men and hostages ready to make the trip down to the harbor, where they would finally be released and I would finally get to see my Theodore again. I couldn't contain my excitement, something Alvin was quick to remark to me about.

We couldn't see anything inside the building as they had drawn all the curtains, but we could hear men inside yelling at each other - or their hostages - and it gave me shudders to think that this was probably how Theodore and Jeanette had been treated.

Turning to Brittany next to me, I said, "I wonder if Jeanette's okay. I hope so. And Theodore. What do you think?"

She dodged her eyes to the floor, and ignored me. Maybe she was pretending she hadn't heard me, but either way I could tell she was uneasy about something. I didn't bother asking what it was.

Suddenly, Randy entered the scene through the revolving glass door, followed by a couple of his men holding at least ten hostages with hands on their heads at gun point. The crowd, including myself and Alvin, roared. Simon and Brittany kept silent and simply watched. Everyone cheered and jumped for joy as more and more men with guns poured out of the hotel with hostages walking in front of them. After a little while, four gunmen smashed through the remaining glass on the door, carrying with them not only AK-47's, but over their heads was a large square metal-looking thing, like a shield. And in the middle of this, directly under the center of the shield, was an Asian man.

A few more men with hostages stepped out through the broken door, and that was the last of them. The crowd followed Randy and his crew, making sure to keep a fair distance so as to not look like they were trying anything fishy, as they started making their way towards the East dock.

Randy held up his gun warningly at the crowd of people. "Stay back! You don't know where these bullets will end up once I start shooting them!"

The threats did the trick, at least for a little while. It was all the crowd could do to stay off of the road ahead of the gunmen, and give them a clear path to walk forward.

Randy couldn't stop darting his eyes from place to place with an extremely suspicious look on his face. He was looking out for something. Suddenly he turned his attention to the crowd. "WHERE IS SIMON? GET HIS FURRY LITTLE ASS ASS OVER HERE!"

Simon picked his head up and jogged over to where Randy was walking, waiting for him. Randy talked sternly down to Simon, who shrugged and calmly replied. After Simon was finished, Randy pointed an accusing finger at Simon and raised his voice just enough so that I could hear him over the crowd: "YOU FUCKING BETTER NOT HAVE!" Simon threw his hands up and backed off just a little, trying to calm Randy down. Randy finally nodded and shooed Simon off. Simon gratefully turned away and walked back into the crowd to join us. Randy went back to darting his eyes from building to building nervously, obviously searching for something.

Alvin turned to his younger brother. "What did he want?" the red-clad chipmunk asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Simon muttered back.

I searched the large pool of hostages, looking for my sister, or my boyfriend. I found both, behind the men under the shield, towards the back end of the hostage line.

_Theodore's POV_

"THEODORE!" The cry of my sweet Eleanor echoed through the streets. "JEANETTE!"

I turned my head to the left, where Eleanor was sprinting towards me. Suddenly, a tall, scruffy man in a yellow suit stepped between her and I, pointing a gun at her head. "Stay back, fat ass!" he yelled at her.

"Don't talk to her like that!" I tried to say confidently. "Leave her alone!"

"Shut yer mouth, or you'll get yours too!"

Eleanor did her best to stay close enough to talk to me while still keeping her distance. "THEO! JEANETTE! ARE BOTH OF YOU OKAY? ARE YOU HURT ANYWHERE?"

I could think of at least twenty different places that I was hurt, but I didn't want to freak her out. "I'm fine! Just fine!"

The tall man cut in again, "I said stay away!"

I heard Jeanette behind me, "I'm okay, too, Ellie. Don't worry about us! You need to get out of here!"

Eleanor nodded and turned back to walk with the crowd. I suddenly called, "ELEANOR I LOVE YOU!"

She turned back around, smiling at me. She blew a kiss and mouthed, "_I love you too_".

And with that she disappeared back into the crowd.

_Alvin's POV_

I looked around the crowd nervously, searching for Brittany. She wasn't in bed this morning, or anywhere else in the room for that matter, and I had hoped that she came down here to see Theo and Jean. Just as I was about to give up, I spotted her walking next to Simon. Neither of them were saying a word to each other.

I ran up to Brittany and hugged her from behind. She squealed and jumped away, not knowing it was me, and turned around in a feisty, fight-ready stance. She looked shocked to see me but was at least relieved enough to loosen up a bit. "Alvie!" she gasped. "N-nice to see you!"

I smiled slyly at her, the kind of smile I gave her when I was about to question her. "Where were you this morning?" I asked.

She hesitated, dodging eye contact with me. I think she even exchanged glances with Simon. "No where. I couldn't sleep, so I went out to find some coffee. That's all."

This concerned me for two reasons. One was because that was really dangerous, and two because it was totally fake. She was lying to me. I looked over to Simon, who also dodged my eyes by looking at the floor. My little brother hadn't gotten a little horny without his woman around, had he? No, of course not. No way. Simon wouldn't do that to me. I turned back to Brittany who smiled at me. She got close to me, and planted a soft kiss on my cheek. I sighed. "Look, Britt, you can't just go running around this city. It's dangerous. It's not like back at home."

She laughed at me. "You need to stop worrying about me so much," she said, winking at me, "I can take care of myself."

I sighed again. "Okay," I muttered. Not really knowing what to do then, I jogged up through the crowd to check on Eleanor.

_Brittany's POV_

I waited for Alvin to disappear around a bunch of people, before I turned to Simon and spoke to him for the first time since we split up in front of the hotel building. "Look, shit-head. You threw me into a situation I wasn't prepared for. Do you have any idea what I went through to stall those guys?"

Simon nodded. "Yes, but I assume that you will let me hear about it regardless, correct?"

I gave out a sarcastic chuckle. "Oh, you bet your ass I will! First, I had a gun pointed at my face! Then, I had a huge scruffy guy threaten me! Then, I had an even huger, even scruffier guy finger rape me! THEN… I had to keep up a lie - which I made up on the fly while I almost died - and walk through that awful building and TALK to Jean and Theo. Theodore gave me this really sweet message to pass onto Jeanette… and I promised that I would pass it on to her. But I can't, because you're goddam mission had to be so fucking secret!"

He raised an eyebrow at me, unfazed. "Are you done," he asked, sarcastically.

"Not even close!" I yelled, getting frustrated, "because _I_ seem to recall a _certain someone_ who almost compromised the mission, just to talk to Jeanette. Even though he specifically TOLD ME that the only objective was to bust out the GFFA dude." I thought carefully. "Did I miss anything?"

He shook his head. "Nope. And I'm sorry about Jeanette. I couldn't help it. All I did was give her a screw, something she could use to help her escape if worse came to worse."

I eyed him up and down. "Well it better have been worth it. You're lucky you weren't caught, Simon. Really lucky. Otherwise, you'd have a lot more than Randy and Buck to be scared of."

_Jeanette's POV_

My arms were still tied uncomfortably behind my back. But at least I still had the screw, partially hidden underneath my arms, and apparently none of the gunmen ever noticed it.

I kept my eye on the hostages in front of me, including the Asian man under the large metal shield, who I assumed was a member of the GFFA. Probably the guy who Randy thought was going to help him cross the strait.

After only five minutes of walking, we finally arrived at the East Dock. And, sure enough, there was John Gault standing by an old-ish wooden power boat tied up at the end of the peer. It was hard to see from where we were standing, but it looked about 80 feet long and probably mostly used for fishing. Before the war, that is. It struggled with the lines which held it at the dock, as the wind had picked up and rough waves tossed the ship around.

Randy turned to the crowd around us. "OKAY! EVERYBODY! LET ME AND MY PEOPLE IN FIRST! YOU CAN FOLLOW BEHIND US, SO LONG AS YOU KEEP A GOOD DISTANCE!"

Everyone did exactly as they were told, including us hostages, being forced down onto the dock at gun point. It felt like eternity before we finally pushed Gault aside and were standing right next to the boat, trying to dodge the splashing of the high waves.

"You see?" Alvin called from the crowd. "We kept our end of the deal; we gave you your boat! Now realease your prisoners!"

Randy simply smirked down at Alvin and turned his back to him, instead facing his onlooking gunmen. He gave Buck a nod, who in turn barked an order to the rest of them: "Okay, boys, load 'em onto the boat!"

The crowd started booing and jeering, but did nothing as all of us hostages were forced to begin climbing up onto the boat.

As I started climbing, I heard Simon behind me running up to the supervising Randy and say, "We had a deal, Randy! You gave me your _word_ that you would release your prisoners once you got your damn boat!"

Randy looked down at Simon with a sly grin on his face. "Deal's off, dumb ass. The more hostages we have on this boat, the harder it would be for Big Brother to try and stop us."

"Randy this isn't right and you know it," Simon pleaded with him, "and besides, you know as well as I do that a few puny Americans don't make a damn bit of difference to Big Brother. Please… just let them go. If this GFFA man of yours _isn't_ important enough for Big Brother to keep him alive, then these other people won't stop him from blowing all of you out of the water!"

Randy shrugged. "Can't hurt." And with that he turned away and watched as every single hostage was forced onto the fishing boat.

Buck escorted _me_ onto the boat personally. "Now it's your turn, sweet cheeks," he told me arrogantly. I started climbing. "Up she goes'n," he said, climbing behind me. I reached the deck of the boat, where every other hostage was waiting with men armed with AK's and shotguns watching them closely.

Randy was the last one to climb up onto the ship, with the crowd booing louder than ever. The second he was on deck, he jogged up to the helm (steering wheel) cabin and I guess was lucky enough to find a key, as he wasted no time in starting the engine.

He poked his head out a window and called down to Buck, "untie us! Now!"

About three men, none of them being Buck, ran over to the starboard side of the ship and began undoing the knots which held the rocking ship to the peer.

I knew instinctively that _this _was one of the extreme emergencies that Simon had mentioned to me about, and I quickly dug the screw out from under my arm and began working on cutting the rope that held my hands behind my back.

Even from on the ship, I could hear Alvin, Brittany, Simon and Eleanor on the dock, screaming at the top of their lungs at Randy. "WAIT! STOP! NO, PLEASE! GIVE THEM BACK!" But Randy, as well as his men, ignored it.

It wasn't long before the ship was completely free from the peer, at which point Randy gunned the motors and we propelled forward with a sudden jolt. With a slow roll to our port side, we were on our way, steaming across the strait, away from the dock.

The screw finally cut through the last strand of string. I kept my hands behind my back and looked around, to make sure that I wasn't being watched right at that moment. The coast was clear, but I did see _one_ thing that did interest me: Buck, sitting on the deck… with his back turned to me. My brain was suddenly flooded with memories of everything that that psycho had done to me. My ears started ringing with every single time he had come up to me at three in the morning with that same old stupid catch phrase.

I stood up, careful not to be seen, and made my way over to where he sat, unsuspecting. I knew I should have jumped over the end of the ship the second I had the chance to escape, but I couldn't help it. I needed this. I walked up to him, his back facing me, and said, "hi!" He turned his head towards me, still sitting, and looked shocked to see me. But he did nothing. I continued talking in an angry mutter, just loud enough so that he could hear me, and so that he could recognize the words: "I'm Buck… and I'm here to fuck."

Without warning, I jumped up at his head with the screw in my right hand. I landed on his face and stuck the jagged, rusty screw directly into his right eye. He let out a scream of pain and started clutching his cheek as I jumped back onto the deck, leaving the screw stuck firmly into his eye socket.

Gunmen were running over to see what the matter was, so I lost no time in jumping onto the rail and diving overboard. I began swimming for shore, best as I could in the rough seas. But at least I felt the satisfaction of hearing that bastard's screaming continue, even as the boat steamed away from me.

_Eleanor's POV_

We stood on the peer, watching in shock as the ship powered away with Jeanette and my Theodore being held captive aboard. That boat was either heading for a painful death, or free air across the strait.

I turned to the others, Simon, Brittany, and Gault, And Brady Moore, watching behind me. "Well," I said, "Maybe that GFFA guy will keep Big Brother from destroying the ship?"

Simon, Gault, Moore, and Brittany all exchanged uneasy glances with each other, and it told me in an instant that they knew something that I didn't.

I couldn't deal with the fact that two of the people I loved most were about to die. Holding back tears, I quickly searched the dock for something, anything that might have concealed a hidden camera. Finding nothing, I fell to my knees and screamed up towards the sky, "BIG BROTHER! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T KILL THEM!"

"I'M BEGGING YOU!" Simon joined. "LEAVE THEM ALIVE!"

Soon, all of the remaining chipmunks on the dock were on our knees and begging a man who we hoped could hear us somewhere in the sky, begging him to allow our loved ones to live. And we wondered if Big Brother was even listening.

_Theodore's POV_

All of the hostages watched as the tall scruffy man was _still _writhing around on the boat's deck, clutching his eye and screaming in pain. At least half a dozen armed men had made a semi circle around him, but made no effort to help him. Suddenly, the man stopped screaming and wrapped his fingers around that thing that was still in his eye, and jerked it out. His eye came out along with it. We could hear him crying in agony.

"You okay, man?" one of the gunmen said softly.

"THAT BITCH TOOK OUT MY EYE!" he screamed. "WHERE IS SHE?" He stood up, looking around at all the frightened people. "SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK SHE IS, OR _BY GOD_ I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!"

For whatever reason, I took this opportunity to glance over to the GFFA man, who looked over at me and smirked. I smiled back at him.

The man with the missing eye was growing impatient. "I'M GIVING YOU TO THE COUNT OF THREE!" He held up his AK-47 warningly. "ONE… TWO… TH-"

"That's enough!" He was interrupted by Randy, walking down from the helm cabin. He looked shocked to see what had happened to Buck. "Where the hell is your eye, Buck?"

"THAT BITCH JEANETTE TOOK IT OUT WITH A NAIL!"

Before anyone could do anything else, the bellowing sound of a military chopper echoed across the sea from the other side of the strait. The GFFA was on its way.

"Everyone to their positions!" Randy called. "This is it! Keep that GFFA scum close! Make sure the shield is over him! Don't let those bastards close to him!"

His men obeyed, as within five seconds at least eight armed men surrounded the GFFA guy. Even this seemed not to please Randy. He ran over to where they were standing, grabbed the Asian guy, and stuck a gun in his face. He looked up as the chopper flew overhead. "YOU WANT HIM?" he screamed at the hovering helicopter. "COME AND GET HIM!"

_Alvin's POV_

Even as the chopper flew to and hovered over the ship, we didn't give up. The crowd watched us as we screamed at Big Brother, asking him to please not kill them.

But at the first hint of members of the crowd screaming in terror, we stopped what we were doing and fearfully turned our attention back to the ship.

The helicopter opened fire. A whole collection of heavy-duty missiles rained down on the fishing boat, blowing it into pieces. Once the boat was nothing but a bunch of floating pieces of wood and wreckage, the chopper unleashed a hose of fire over the remains, incinerating everything it touched. Killing everybody who remained.

The crowd gasped in horror.

The helicopter flew back to the other side of the strait and landed behind a bunch of trees.

All we could see of the remains of the ship were a bunch of fires, rocking up and down on wavy seas. Other than that, nothing moved.

We all stared, dumbfounded. Everyone on that boat, including our loved ones, had died. They were gone.

I guess reality finally sank in with the girls, as they broke down and started crying. Simon, still on his knees, dug his face into his palms. I held back tears myself. My brother had just been murdered in cold blood.

I walked over to Simon and put my hand on his shoulder. "I did this," he managed to murmur through his tears.

"No," I said firmly, "you had nothing to do with this."

"You don't understand," he said, "I made a deal with Big Brother. I carried out a mission for him. Randy… he actually _had_ an important GFFA agent. One that Big Brother wouldn't have killed. But I helped swap him out for a peasant who looked just like him… in exchange for that boat. I was so stupid. I can't believe I didn't see this coming."

I knelt beside him, not knowing whether to be sorry for him or angry at him. I figured the least I could do was at least make him feel better. "This is not you're fault." I searched my mind for someone else to blame. "This is all Big Brother's doing. He knew Randy was going to pull that stunt. He must have. He had cameras all over the joint."

Simon looked up from him hands. He glanced up at me, then turned his attention to Brittany and Eleanor, hugging each other at the edge of the peer, crying uncontrollably. Suddenly, a loud gasp for air coming from over the edge caught their attention. That gasp was soon followed by loud splashing and a faint cry for help. Everyone rushed to the end of the dock, to see Jeanette struggling to stay afloat as she drifted nearer and nearer to us.

Everyone jumped for joy, whooping and hollering and cheering, "Jeanette! Oh thank God! Jeanette, over here!"

As soon as she was close enough, Simon had reached his hand over the edge and was helping Jeanette up onto the dock. She choked up some sea water and lay panting on the wood floor for a solid ten seconds. When she finally stood up, she was met with a passionate kiss from Simon.

The crowd cheered.

They broke apart, and right away Simon said, "was Theodore with you?"

She frowned. "N-no. I didn't see him. I…" she lowered her voice, "…I don't think he made it. I'm sorry"

Everything came crashing back to Earth. Reality sank in once again: Theodore was dead. But now we knew who to blame.

In a flash, Simon sprinted off through the confused crowd, towards the city.

_Simon's POV_

I ignored the calls coming from John Gault asking where I was going. It was none of his business. I knew exactly where I was going, and that was all that mattered. I was going where I knew Big Brother was waiting. The same place he met us in the first place to talk to us about the deal, where he handed us Hao Zhan and our assignments, knowing full well that if we held up our end of the bargain that Theodore would die. He lied to me. And then, he killed my brother.

I didn't care how tired my body thought I was; I kept running. I ran through the cracked, run down streets which normally at this hour of the day would have been bustling with life. But, thanks to Big Brother, there was no life to be found. I ran past several tall, important-looking buildings. Before the war, there might have been business men in those buildings, prepping for a presentation, trying to grow their small business into a major establishment. Now, thanks to the GFFA, there was almost no such thing as "business". I ran past beautiful, colorful houses, decorated with faded paint jobs and dead flowers. In the past, there might have been a nice family, with a loving mother fixing up some soup for her children playing out in the front yard. But whoever _used _to live in that house was by all likelihood dead by now. Gone, like Theodore, all thanks to Big Brother and his GFFA.

It all made me sick, but I kept running. I ran through the city as fast as I could to get to that office building. I was sore, gasping for air, but I kept chugging along. It seemed like hours, but I did eventually make it to the office building. I stood outside the building for a while, hands on my knees, choking for air. But I finally lifted myself up and tried to open the door. I jumped up as high as I could several times, and on the last time I finally reached the door knob. Being that hook kind, it twisted as soon as I had my arms around it. The door opened. I fell to the ground and shimmied through the small opening into the building. I closed the door behind me.

There was no one in the lobby, the pretty lady at the front desk was not to be found. I walked through the hallways, trying to remember my way to "Room 3". It struck me that I didn't actually have any proof the Big Brother would be here. I just knew it. I felt it. He had to be. With some body guards, probably. But here. In Room 3. That's how it had to be, I told myself.

I finally found Room 3. The well-polished wooden door shone dimly, even without much sun light. The golden door knob showed me a perfect reflection of myself. Nothing inside the room made a sound, and I was nervous to go in. I was intimidated by the fact that Big Brother might not have been in there. I was even more intimidated by the fact that he just might be in there at that moment, waiting for me to come in, ready to laugh at my pains and ridicule my attempts at getting angry at him. That's what I feared most.

Using the same steps that I had used to get into the building, I opened the door slowly. I peered inside the room. No one was there. My heart sank. But just as I was about to go away to find my brother and everyone else I held dear, I noticed a single piece of paper, sitting at the edge of the wooden table, right in front of the chair that Big Brother had sat in when he gave us the mission. I checked one more time to make sure no one was watching me. Well, of _course_ people were watching me, somewhere. This is all live television. There was at least one hidden camera somewhere in this room.

I walked slowly up to the table, hopped onto the nearest chair, and jumped up onto the table's edge with ease. I crawled all the way over to where the piece of paper sat, motionless. I saw that it was a handwritten note, written in red ink, headed, "Dear Simon,". I did my best to imagine Big Brother, sitting in this chair, writing this not just for me. I read on.

"_I apologize for having lied to you in that meeting. I admit to you now, that I did indeed know that Randy was not planning on honoring your deal with him. It was necessary, though, in order for you to have saved the life of that honorable member of the GFFA. As the director of this show, he fights every day to make your lives better, and I am sure that you will be very pleased to hear that we recovered him safely and he will continue his work. _

_I understand that you are angry with me and blame me for the death of your beloved brother, but you must understand that I did what I must in order to protect the entire Quarantine. We are all deeply by saddened by your loss as he was a prime contributor to this show. If it at least helps dull the pain, you should know that these past few hours have been getting record viewings. The dramatic arc of your character is very much loved by our audience, so if you could keep up the great work, it would be much appreciated._

_Thank you for your undying services to the GFFA,_

_Big Brother"_

I crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it across the room. Not knowing what to do then, I slumped down until I was sitting on the wooden table, and started crying.

_Eleanor's POV_

I was the last one to leave the dock. The wind was as strong as ever, blowing into my face and wiping the tears off my face, and the waves crashed into the peer with even more force than they had been doing before.

The rest of the crowd had long since departed, going back to whatever they had busied themselves with before the news had reached them that the prisoners would be released. Alvin, Brittany and Jeanette had stayed with me for a little, but eventually moved on. But I couldn't. I continued to stare at what was left of the wreckage of the fishing ship, as if holding out some sort of small hope that Theodore would suddenly pop hist little head out of the fire, come swimming all the way over to the dock, would plant a huge kiss on my lips, and tell me that he loved me.

Suddenly, a faint splashing sound perked up my ears. I turned in the direction that the noise was coming from and cupped my paws over my eyes to see what was making the noise. A few yards from the dock, someone was trying to climb up over the sea wall. A man.

I ran over to where the man was climbing and peered over the side. I couldn't see anything accept the top of a blonde head and that he was shirtless.

"Sir!" I called down to him. "Are you okay? Should I go get help?"

He ignored me as he finally reached the top, keeping his face down, choking up sea water. He collapsed onto the ground. I went around his head to get a look at his face.

As soon as I saw his face, I gasped. The guy had clearly _just _an eye. On top of that, I recognized him instantly as the guy who had gotten between me and Theo and Jeanette while I was trying to talk to them on the road. I stood there, paralyzed from fear.

Suddenly, the guy opened his one good eye and saw me staring at him in shock. He lunged up at me and before I could get away he had grabbed me in his right hand. He lifted me up, laughing sinisterly. With his free hand, he reached into his pocket and brought out a screw, stained with blood and the remnants of some kind of body part or another, and held it at my throat.

"You see this?" he whispered into my ear. "_This _is what that bitch of a sister of yours used to take my gorgeous eye out. And now _you _are gonna help me get her back. She will pay! You hear me? She's gonna die a slow… painful death. And you're gonna watch!"

**Well, there you go! If you got depression from reading this chapter, good! That's what it's meant for. If you enjoyed it, please let me know in a review (reviews, as I'm sure you know by now, mean the world to me). So what are you waiting for? REVIEW!**


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